Milford: Gilmore receives outstanding teacher award

MILFORD – Stacy Middle School science teacher Robert Gilmore accepted the 2013-2014 Outstanding Teacher Award at Milford High School Monday.

The district-wide honor is presented by The Senator Louis P. Bertonazzi Foundation and comes with a $1,000 cash prize. The former senator, who attended the ceremony, presented the award to Gilmore.

"You know, you just do your thing," he said. "You don’t expect to be recognized, you just do it."

Teachers gathered at Milford High School for orientation and organizational meetings prior to today's start of school. But the presentation of the Outstanding Teacher Award was the first order of business.

Gilmore is a life-long Milford resident and has a Ph.D. in audiology from the University of Florida and has been teaching science at Stacy Middle School for the past nine years. Before coming to Milford, he worked as an adjunct professor at Northeastern University and was employed as an audiologist.

His mother, Milly Gilmore, taught in the district for more than 30 years.

Gilmore said he began teaching middle school science because of the opportunity to work with children.

"At the middle school level everything is possible," he said. "The children are so intrigued and curious."

But students can carry with them a lot of misconceptions about the ways in which the world works. And for Gilmore, debunking those myths has become a personal challenge, he said.

Seven nominees – one from each school in the district – were considered. The nominations were submitted by faculty and staff in the respective buildings, then reviewed by an anonymous, seven-member selection committee of Milford residents, according to Bertonazzi.

Bertonazzi presented each of the nominees with a plaque before presenting the award to Gilmore.

"Each nominee is a winner of a nomination in his or her building, therefore obviously an outstanding teacher," Bertonazzi said.